North Korea criticized the United States Saturday for planning to deploy a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier near the Korean Peninsula.

The United States is scheduled to conduct a large-scale joint military exercise with South Korea, called the RSOI (Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration) drills, starting on March 25.

The drills will involve 30,000 American troops stationed in South Korea and an unspecified number of South Korean troops as well as a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

The North Korean Central Broadcasting Station said the "U.S. imperialists" are planning to mobilize the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln in the large-scale joint military drills to be staged in the South.

The broadcaster claimed that the inclusion of the nuclear aircraft carrier in the drills underlines Washington's plot to provoke a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula.

It pointed out the carrier's record of being deployed in the Persian Gulf just before the U.S. launched military strikes against Iraq three years ago.

Citing the upcoming U.S.-South Korea joint military exercise, North Korea has already postponed scheduled Cabinet-level talks with South Korea.